Charakasamhita is a redacted edition of Agniveshatantra (1000 BC) acclaimed to be most important classic of Ayurvedic medicine. Charakasamhita contains information about evidence as well as experienced based medicine with many poly-herbal formulations along with mineral and animal substances. The subject material was dealt under 8 sections and 120 chapters. At the beginning of the text, the materia medica was discussed in the first four chapters which are popularly known as Bheshajachatushka or Aushadhachatushka (Quadrate on drugs) where in one finds the most important classification of drugs of natural sources from pharmacological and pharmaco-therapeutics perspectives. A critical analysis of these four chapters clearly indicates that the essential drugs of Ayurvedic materia medica which are prescribed in the form of single, simple and poly-herbal recipes in the management of various disease conditions were included in these chapters. An attempt is made in this study to identify the herbs mentioned in these chapters as the herbal research is being carried out globally with a greater enthusiasm for finding out active natural drug molecules which are free from side effects.
Key words: Charakasamhita, Aushadhachatushka (Bheshajachatushka)
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